Things are moving right along here in Washington DC. We got into Dulles Airport about 4PM Tuesday and made it to an October2011.org rally at "Busboys and Poets" restaurant by about 6:30PM. While we were waiting to get in, we were asked to be interviewed by a lady and a guy with a huge camera.

We told them where we had come from, who we were, and why we were there in an extensive interview. After we were done they told us they were from the locel FOX TV station. The next day we found out the interview actually made the news but we don't watch that station so we missed it. We may get a copy of it later.

The next day, first day of the occupation, there was about 5 to 8 thousand people in Freedom Plaza with speakers and music. We stayed in the park all night and about froze our buns off with the 40º something temperatures here.

On Friday there was a huge march from Freedom Plaza, past the White House, then to a company that builds the Drone aircraft that wipes out entire blocks of people to get at one insurgent, so they classify all that are killed, men, women, and children, as insurgents. If this isn't a war crime, then all those tried at Nuremburg should have all been released also.

The same day there was a march on the Chamber of Commerce who were advertising JOBS. We all filled out applications for jobs and when they didn't have any, we demanded they take the sign down as it was false advertising. Y

esterday there was another huge march that we missed, to the Air and Space museum where they have displays of all the missiles that kill with COLLATERAL DAMAGE. There was a sit-down at the front door which resulted in many people getting pepper sprayed, and one arrest.

There is resolve to continue occupation of Freedom Plaza even though the permit runs out at Midnight tonight. What happens then only time will tell, but we plan to be here at least until the 20th. It is all very exciting and we have met people from all over the country, most of who surprisingly are about our age.(over 55). I will also be sending a photo of Judie along with models of the Drones in front of the White House at the march yesterday.
Freedom Plaza is Ours

And we're never giving it back. Our permit for Freedom Plaza in Washington, D.C., expired, we refused to leave, and the Park Police has just proposed to let us stay for four more months.

We've agreed. We have not said that when the four months are over and the American Spring is here we will leave.

In fact, we intend to make it possible for anyone to visit D.C. with free accommodations. Just bring a sleeping bag and agree to work with us to pressure Congress, the White House, K Street, the Pentagon, and all the lobbyists and profiteers for peace and justice. We have free food, we have free drink, we have free trainings and seminars, we have tents, we have peace keepers, we have a big victory under out belts, and we welcome all peace makers for they shall inherit Freedom Plaza. We own it. It is ours. It shall remain ours world without end.

The Taste of DC food festival just gave us all their remaining food. Or at least all the individual booths did. Ben and Jerry's just endorsed us. Busboys and Poets just fed us. Businesses that support us will be honored and supported by 99 percent of this country.

So, here's the plan: Bring us your reports from around the country at your local Occupations. Fill us in here in the Empire's Capital. We will fill you in too. We will train and inspire and connect you with the rest of this global movement. Then go back home energized. Come down from New York and go back up. We need to coordinate on a personal level.

Our brothers and sisters in McPherson Square have a growing occupation too. Join them. Join us. We're family. We disrupted the work of the NSA today, and the Association of the Army's convention at which our women had generals crawling under tanks to avoid cameras. We shut down a celebration of Christopher Columbus as well.

And Tuesday morning at 9 a.m. sharp in Our Freedom Plaza we will set off to "welcome" Congress back to town. Join us. We are legion.

"Recession Officially Over," The New York Times' lead headline declared around 7 o'clock this morning. (Watch: they'll change it.) That was Part A. Part B said, "US Incomes Kept Falling." Welcome to What-The-Fuck Nation. I suppose if you include the cost of things like the number of auto accident victims transported by EMT squads as part of your Gross Domestic Product such contradictions to reality are possible. Elizabeth Kübler-Ross, where are you when we really need you?

I dropped in on the Occupy Wall Street crowd down in Zuccotti Park last Thursday. It was like 1968 all over again, except there was no weed wafting on the breeze (another WTF?). The Boomer-owned-and-operated media was complaining about them all week. They were "coddled trust-funders" (an odd accusation made by people whose college enrollment status got them a draft deferment, back when college cost $500 a year). Then there was the persistent nagging over the "lack of an agenda," as if the US Department of Energy, or the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs was doing a whole lot better.

This is the funniest part to me: that leaders of a nation incapable of constructing a coherent consensus about reality can accuse its youth of not having a clear program. If the OWS movement stands for anything, it's a dire protest against the country's leaders' lack of a clear program.

For instance, what is Attorney General Eric Holder's program for prosecuting CDO swindles, the MERS racket, the bonus creamings of TBTF bank executives, the siphoning of money from the Federal Reserve to foreign banks, the misconduct at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the willful negligence of the SEC, and countless other villainies? What is Barack Obama's program for restoring the rule of law in American financial affairs? (Generally, the rule of law requires the enforcement of laws, no?)

Language is failing us, of course. When speaking of "recession," one is forced into using the twisted, tweaked, gamed categories of economists whose mission is to make their elected bosses look good in spite of anything reality says. I prefer the term contraction, because a.) that is what is really going on, and b.) the economists haven't got their mendacious mitts around it yet. Contraction means there is not going to be more, only less, and it implies that a reality-based society would make some attempt to acknowledge and manage having less - possibly by doing more.

Instead, our leaders only propose accounting tricks to pretend there is more when really there is less. The banking frauds of the past twenty years were a conspiracy between government and banks to provide the illusion that an economy based on happy motoring, suburban land development, continual war, and entertainment-on-demand could go on indefinitely. The public went along with it following the path of least resistance, allowing themselves to be called "consumers." They also went along with the nonsense out of the Supreme Court that declared corporations to be "persons" with "a right to free speech" where political campaign contributions were concerned - thereby assuring the wholesale purchase of the US government by Wall Street banks.

Praise has been coming in from all quarters for the peacefulness of the OWSers. Don't expect that to last. In the natural course of things, revolutionary actions meet resistance, generate friction, and then heat. Anyway, history is playing one of its little tricks by simultaneously ramping up the OWS movement in the same moment that the banking system is actually imploding, with the fabric showing the most stress right now in Europe. I shudder to imagine what happens when OWS moves into the streets of France, Germany, Holland, Italy, and Spain.

All of the action right now has the weird aura of being an overture to the year 2012, fast approaching as we slouch into the potentially demoralizing holidays of the current year. I don't subscribe to Mayan apocalypse notions, but there's something creepy about the wendings and tendings of our affairs these days. OWS is nature's way of telling us to get our shit together, or else. This means a whole lot more than bogus "jobs" bills and Federal Reserve interest rate legerdemain. It means coming to grips with the limits of complexity and purging the system of the idea that anything is too big to fail. What happens when Occupy Wall Street becomes Occupy Everything, Everywhere?

Kauai Island Utility Cooperative (KIUC) is pursuing the development of an approximately 10 megawatt photovoltaic (PV) project. Upon completion the project will be the largest PV facility in Hawai‘i and the largest on the island of Kauai by almost two times.

The cooperative will immediately begin efforts to obtain approval from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Utilities Service (RUS) to reallocate up to $68 million of previously approved loan funds to construct an integrated PV and Battery Energy Storage System project on Kauai. The funds were originally approved for a 10 megawatt combustion turbine generator often referred to as “Gen X” or “CT2.”

To qualify for federal tax incentives under the Stimulus Bill and Hawai‘i state tax incentives, KIUC’s board of directors last week approved the formation of a new for-profit subsidiary, KIUC Renewable Solutions One, LLC. The for-profit subsidiary is necessary because KIUC as a tax-exempt cooperative does not qualify for the federal or state incentives. KIUC expects that up to 50 percent of the cost of the PV portion of the facility will be paid for by the incentives. The subsidiary company will be 100 percent owned and controlled by the cooperative.

“KIUC is following a model employed by other electric cooperatives, to use a subsidiary to qualify for tax incentives only available to for-profit companies. We will combine the tax credits, our own low cost financing, and the declining cost of solar photovoltaic systems to produce energy at significantly less than the cost of power generated from oil. The cost for a KIUC owned PV facility will also be lower than the recently signed Power Purchase Agreement contracts due to our lower overall cost of capital,” said KIUC president David Bissell.

A majority of KIUC’s generation today still comes from fossil fuels, but the co-op has actively expanded its portfolio of renewable technologies. KIUC now has 17 megawatts of solar PV and biomass-fired generation projects under Power Purchase Agreements. Approximately 35 megawatts of low-impact hydropower projects are being studied, but KIUC has not determined whether additional clean, renewable hydropower can be feasibly developed on Kaua i.

A Request for Proposal to contractors to build the PV facility was released this week. “We are on a very short timeline to qualify for the federal incentives,” said Brad Rockwell, KIUC manager of production. “With this facility we would have about 20 megawatts of solar PV on our system, and that is why we are integrating the Battery Energy Storage System to handle that level of intermittent resource and still have excellent reliability,” he added.

“KIUC would have more solar PV concentration than any utility in the U.S. if this project can be successfully developed,” added Bissell.

“The benefits are significant,” said KIUC board chairman Phil Tacbian. “By using the RUS approved funds for solar development, the cooperative effectively shelves the combustion turbine plant and moves closer to giving our members the clean, renewable energy they have asked for.”

The combustion turbine was originally hoped to be fueled by renewable bio-diesel, but that technology has not developed quickly enough to realistically use the RUS funds in the approved timeframe. A biomass-fired boiler at the Port Allen Generating Station was studied earlier this year, but its cost would appear to be less attractive than a solar PV facility according to KIUC’s engineering analysis.

“With wind power not feasible due to endangered species concerns, combining solar PV with the Battery Energy Storage System moves us closer to the board’s strategic goal of 50 percent renewable by 2023. If we are able to develop additional low-impact, clean hydropower later this decade, we will get there ahead of schedule,” added Tacbian.

Far be it from me to accuse Gandhi of missing a note, but in the case of the 'Occupy Wall Street' protests, the Mahatma's famous quote appears to be lacking a few essential words. "First they ignore you," he said, "then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win."

That's not quite correct.

Certainly, the OWS protests began with a great whistling silence from the "mainstream" news media. It is only because of the resources available to the average person in this marvelous technological age we live in that word of the protest ever reached beyond its original location.

Thanks to cell phones, video cameras, digital recorders, and of course, the internet - all wielded by patriot citizens - reports, images and video of the protest began to dribble out via Twitter, Facebook and a variety of blogs and alternative news media sites like Truthout. But from the "mainstream" news, there was nothing, and nothing, and nothing.

Eventually, however, the OWS protest broke through the "mainstream" news blackout, thanks in no small part to commentators like Lawrence O'Donnell, Rachel Maddow and Keith Olbermann. Once the "mainstream" news outlets finally deigned to lower themselves to report on the rabble down on Wall Street, their tone and tenor fairly oozed contempt.

The New York Times, bastion of the status quo, published an article describing each and every participant of the OWS protest as a moonbeam-riding fuzzbrain, someone reeking of patchouli who couldn't string a coherent thought together if their life depended on it...which was followed up immediately by a barrage of reports defending cops who hosed down defenseless women penned in behind nylon barriers with pepper spray, because those cops were doing exactly, precisely the right thing. Or something.

This, as usual, from the same "mainstream" news media that didn't have any problem with the gun-toting "patriots" of the Tea Party and their catastrophically-spelled signs. Well, then again, the Tea Party has corporate sponsorship, while the OWS protesters are doing this on their own. It pays - literally - to have friends in high places.

Similar disdain was heaped upon the OWS protest from every corner of the "mainstream" news realm, most especially from Fox News and the long reach of conservative talk radio. These protesters are bums, hippies, losers, anarchists, idiots, communists and fools, a drumbeat which has continued to this very day.

So.

First they ignore you: check.

Then they ridicule you: check.

According to Gandhi, the next step comes when they fight you, but here is the spot where his marvelous wisdom could use a bit of enhancement.

First they ignore you, then they ridicule you...

Then they get scared.

And they are scared, now. You can smell it. The criticism being leveled at the OWS movement has gotten far harsher in the last several days. Presidential candidate Mitt Romney recently deployed the old chestnut about "class warfare" to describe the protest. Rep. Eric Cantor doubled down on Romney's rhetoric with some of his own: "If you read the newspapers today, I for one am increasingly concerned about the growing mobs occupying Wall Street and the other cities across the country. Believe it or not, some in this town have actually condoned the pitting of Americans against Americans."

That's pretty rich right there, don't you think? Fellows like Cantor have made turning American against American their bread and butter for the last ten years..."You're with us or against us"...but I digress.

Fact: OWS has bloomed in more than a dozen major cities all across the country. It stopped being a protest a while ago. It's a movement now.

And they're scared.

Know how I know? I know because a friend in San Francisco took the time to transcribe a document he was given by the major bank he works for. The document, titled "Protest Safety Handbook," explains what a bank employee should do when confronted with the horror and terror of an OWS protest.

I am leaving the name of the bank out of this to protect my friend. Some tidbits:

The movement in New York has begun to publish a four page news paper titled "The Occupied Wall Street Journal." The current edition of the published document loosely outlines the group's manifesto and intentions. The group has indicated that they have been inspired by the results from similar groups involved in the "Arab Spring" in the Middle East. The group's publication cites an intention to first to protest and then to march, escalating to civil disobedience when necessary.

These types of groups are reaching out to the disengaged and disenfranchised population of the United States for members, often encouraging the unemployed and homeless to join the movement. Often these marches and protests are unplanned and result from instant notification on "Social Networks" that produce "Flash Protest Mobs" in a matter of minutes. While this group has not yet resorted to violence the possibility exists that they can.

Safety Tips:

- Avoid poorly lit areas and isolated locations that may make you vulnerable to an attack.

- Keep the cars doors locked while driving in the area of a mob or protest march.

- Project an image of confidence and strength. Walk with a purpose and avoid hesitation, keep your head up, shoulders back and make eye contact with people you pass.

- Avoid confrontation and unnecessary contact with protesters.

- Avoid walking or driving alone. There is safety in numbers.

- Carry purses close to the body.

- Wallets and cash are best kept in a front pocket.

- Avoid wearing Bank ID or logo items outside the bank if possible.

- Keep your cell phone charged and close at hand.

- Have emergency contact information pre-programmed into your phone.

- Have your keys out and ready before you need them.

- If you feel that you're in danger or if you observe suspicious or illegal activities, call the police or dial 911.

- If confronted or attacked, try to remain calm and cooperate by following the attacker's instructions.

- Do not attempt to reason or argue with the protesters.

- Cooperate and do not risk your personal safety.

- Be a good witness and try to remember as many details of what occurred as you can.

(Emphasis added)

Makes it sound like you're walking through a war zone, right? Not a peaceful protest, but some actively dangerous Thunderdome where instant and horrible death might reach out at any time to cut you down.

The financial powers-that-be are desperate to paint this peaceful, meaningful movement as some kind of civilization-annihilating upheaval, populated by rogues, pickpockets, mobs and murderers. They need the OWS protest to be seen this way by the general public, so they can discredit it and destroy it. Fear-mongering is an old, old tactic, and they are deploying it once again.

Note well: the bank that distributed this hyper-paranoid ball of gibberish is an entire continent away from the nexus of the OWS movement in New York City.

I guess San Francisco's OWS chapter has been making some noise. Same with Boston, and DC, and a dozen other cities.

First they ignore you.

Then they ridicule you.

Then they get scared.

Then they fight you.

Then you win.

I don't think the Mahatma would mind this small addition to his statement. It fits.

Image above: Mining operation for tar sand oil head for Keystone XL Pipeline. From (http://www.greendirectorymontana.com/articles/public_comments_needed_on_keystone_xl_pipeline__523).
The Keystone XL is a 1,980 mile bitumen heavy oil pipeline stretching from the Alberta tar sands to the gulf coast refineries, nearing the final hurdles towards completion. The processing of the tar sands will eventually mean the destruction of “some 740,000 acres of boreal forest, a natural carbon reservoir.” There are also grave concerns regarding the impact of pipeline leaks on rivers and vast aquifers serving millions of people. The recent rupture under Montana’s Yellowstone River was carrying these tar sands oil, a heavier, more toxic form of crude oil. A SolveClimate report by David Sassoon states:

The Koch brothers import and refine 25 percent of oil sands crude reaching the U.S., and stand to profit from an increased flow of the Keystone XL estimated as 510,000 barrels a day, if it gets built.

Proponents tout it as a boon to national security that would reduce America’s dependence on oil from unfriendly regimes. Opponents say it would magnify an environmental nightmare at great cost and provide only the illusion of national benefit.
What’s been left out of the ferocious debate over the pipeline, however, is the prospect that if president Obama allows a permit for the Keystone XL to be granted, he would be handing a big victory and great financial opportunity to Charles and David Koch, his bitterest political enemies and among the most powerful opponents of his cleaneconomy agenda.

The two brothers together own virtually all of Koch Industries Inc. — a giant oil conglomerate headquartered in Wichita, Kan., with annual revenues estimated to be $100 billion.

The Koch brothers are not run-of-the-mill political opponents. An investigative report last year by the New Yorker magazine on the secretive and deep-pocketed pair have shown them to be “waging a war against Obama.” They have bankrolled the Tea Party movement, climate change skepticism and right-wing think tanks, such as the Cato Institute, the Heritage Foundation, the Competitive Enterprise Institute and the National Center for Policy Analysis.

Through Flint Hills Resources LP based in Wichita, Kan., the Koch brothers provided $1 million in 2010 to the failed effort to suspend California’s groundbreaking 2006 global warming law.

After the 2010 midterm elections, they have become established at the center of GOP power, according to The Los Angeles Times. The paper reported this week that Koch Industries and its employees formed the largest single oil and gas donor to members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

“The Koch brothers are architects of the dirty energy strategy, both in Washington and through their commercial interests,” Jeremy Symons of the Reston, Va.-based National Wildlife Federation said. “It wouldn’t make any sense at all for the president to give this pipeline project the thumbs up and undermine his own clean energy efforts.”

Although the pipeline, if approved, would increase the supply of oil reaching the U.S., a 2009 market analysis conducted by TransCanada, builder of the pipeline, forecast higher prices. The analysis, which TransCanada conducted as part of its Canadian permit application, projected that prices would increase about $3 per barrel as a result of the pipeline.

That would send at least an additional $2 billion from American consumers to Canadian and multinational oil interests, despite the increase in supply. Given its deep involvement in the Canadian petroleum industry, the Koch brothers’ operation stands to snare some of the windfall.

The 1,959-mile pipeline would cut through Montana, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas and Oklahoma to refineries in Texas, and crisscross the Ogallala Aquifer, which Americans living in the Midwest rely on for fresh drinking water as well as irrigation.
Last July, the EPA rolled up its sleeves and called a time out. The agency deemed the State Department’s environmental review of the Keystone project as “inadequate,” the lowest possible ranking. EPA raised concerns over a potential oil spill over the Ogallala aquifer.

The agency also asked the State Department to consider the national security implications of expanding the nation’s commitment to a relatively high-carbon source of oil, which EPA says has a well-to-tank carbon footprint 82 percent greater than conventional oil.

The review period was extended 90 days to allow for interagency cooperation, but Secretary of State Clinton created controversy when she said in a speech that she was inclined to grant the approval. Her comments came before the interagency analysis was completed.
Subsequently it was revealed that TransCanada’s chief Washington lobbyist, Paul Elliott, served as national deputy director and chief of staff for delegate selection for the 2008 presidential campaign of then-New York Sen. Hillary Clinton. Freedom of Information Act requests for communications with Paul Elliott have been perfunctorily rejected by the State Department.

Since the report’s publication in February 2011 Hillary Clinton has continued to give the State Department unreserved support for the completion of the Keystone XL.

Protesters of the pipeline have converged on the White House in significant numbers for a two week long civil disobedience sit-in culminating in a big demonstration on September 3rd. Large numbers have been arrested and their severe treatment chronicled.

As much animosity as is suppose to exist between the Koch brothers and the Obama Administration it is puzzling that the Keystone XL continues to easily pass through the few remaining obstacles to it’s completion. Unless a sustained and significant voice is raised the outcome is near certain. Even a NIMBY would find the prospect of the 2k mile pipeline running through the heartland of America disconcerting.

The department allowed TransCanada, the company seeking permission to build the 1,700-mile pipeline from the oil sands of northern Alberta to the Gulf Coast in Texas, to solicit and screen bids for the environmental study. At TransCanada’s recommendation, the department hired Cardno Entrix, an environmental contractor based in Houston, even though it had previously worked on projects with TransCanada and describes the pipeline company as a “major client” in its marketing materials.

While it is common for federal agencies to farm out environmental impact studies, legal experts said they were surprised the State Department was not more circumspect about the potential for real and perceived conflicts of interest on such a large and controversial project.

John D. Echeverria, an expert on environmental law, referred to the process as “outsourcing government responsibility.”

The subsequent study, released at the end of August, found that the massive pipeline would have “limited adverse environmental impacts” if operated according to regulations. That positive assessment removed one of the last hurdles for approval of the proposed pipeline.

Cardno Entrix also played a substantial role in organizing the public hearings on the project for the State Department, the last of which was held Friday in Washington. The proposal is open for public comment until midnight Sunday, and the department’s Web site directs comment to a Cardno Entrix e-mail address.

Environmental groups, as well as some citizens and public officials along the route, have opposed the project, citing the relatively high emissions created by extracting crude from oil sands and the spill threat posed to important aquifers by a pipeline filled with a potentially corrosive crude, among other concerns. The E.P.A. has criticized two prior draft environmental impact statements prepared by Cardno Entrix on Keystone XL as “inadequate” and providing “insufficient information,” but has not yet rendered an appraisal of the final study. The E.P.A.’s role is purely advisory.

Advocates for the project say that Keystone XL, which would carry 700,000 barrels of crude a day, would create thousands of jobs and help ensure a stable fuel supply from a friendly neighbor.

The State Department is the agency that approves transboundary pipelines by determining whether they are in the national interest. Its decision is expected by the end of the year.

The National Environmental Policy Act, which took effect in 1970, allows for agencies to hire outside contractors to perform its required environmental impact studies, but advises that contractors be chosen “solely by the lead agency” and should “execute a disclosure statement” specifying that they “have no financial or other interest in the outcome of the project.”

And yet legal experts said it had become common for companies applying to build government projects to be involved in assigning and paying for the impact analysis. Some say such arrangements are nearly inevitable because federal agencies typically lack the in-house resources or money to conduct these complex studies. “What’s normal is deplorable, and it’s NEPA’s dirty little secret,” said Mr. Echeverria, acting director of the Environmental Law Center at Vermont Law School, referring to the law. He said federal agencies are supposed to review the findings, but often lack the expertise to do so.

Oliver A. Houck, a law professor at Tulane University and an expert on NEPA, said Cardno Entrix should never have been selected to perform the environmental study on Keystone XL because of its relationship with TransCanada and the potential to garner more work involving the pipeline. The company provides a wide ranges of services, including assisting in oil spill response.

Cardno Entrix had a “financial interest in the outcome of the project,” Mr. Houck said, adding, “Their primary loyalty is getting this project through, in the way the client wants.”

Kerri-Ann Jones, the assistant secretary of state for oceans and international environmental and scientific affairs, in an interview, said the State Department followed all federal regulations and had closely managed and supervised the company’s work, adding, “We have final say.”

She said that TransCanada had managed the bidding process and recommended three candidates with Cardno Entrix topping the list. The department vetted Cardno Entrix by consulting with other agencies like the Bureau of Land Management. TransCanada pays the consultant directly, but would not reveal the amount.

Ms. Jones said that Cardno Entrix provided a solid and impartial study, which became more robust through the draft process, with advice from agencies like the E.P.A. “I think it required a lot a lot of work to get it where it is now,” she said. “We have done an objective environmental impact statement.”

The State Department has also faced charges of political conflict of interest over its handling of the Keystone XL application because TransCanada’s chief Washington lobbyist, Paul Elliott, was a top official in Hillary Rodham Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign.

Cardno Entrix officials referred all questions about its participation to the State Department. Cardno Entrix did submit a disclosure statement acknowledging that it was paid $2.9 million to handle the environmental review of an earlier pipeline in the Keystone network. It did not mention another project it had done for TransCanada, consulting on a natural gas pipeline that runs through Wyoming, Montana and North Dakota.

A spokesman for TransCanada, Terry Cunha, said that his company had recommended contractors to the State Department based on “technical ability, experience, and appropriate personnel.” But he said the final contract for the environmental assessment “provides that Department of State directs Entrix. As a result, we don’t have a direct relationship with Entrix.” The American company, Entrix, merged with the Australian company Cardno Limited in 2010.

Environmental groups say the study underplays both the emissions impact of the new pipeline and the danger posed by a spill of crude from oil sands, called diluted bitumen, a hard-to-remediate mixture. An accident at a pipeline owned by Enbridge Energy in July 2010 dumped 843,000 gallons of such oil near Marshall, Mich.

A 35-mile stretch of the Kalamazoo River remains closed and cleanup has proved extremely difficult, running over budget and past deadlines set by the E.P.A. Estimates of cleanup costs have run well over $500 million. The E.P.A.’s regional administrator said her office had never seen a river system affected by so much submerged oil.

But the impact report for the Keystone XL project says that “response to a spill from the proposed pipeline would not require unique clean up procedures.”

The Enbridge spill is only mentioned briefly in addendums. And Cardno Entrix would have been aware of the challenges in Michigan: it was hired by Enbridge to assess the damage to natural resources caused by the spill.

Steven Da Silva, a retired science teacher who attended public hearings in Austin and Port Arthur, Texas, last week to oppose the pipeline, said he was surprised to see officials wearing Cardno Entrix nametags and was not sure whether State Department employees were present.

The department said its personnel moderated all hearings.

Legal experts said it is not unusual for subcontractors to conduct hearings and prepare responses to complaints. But they also said the State Department should closely monitor the work to make sure that any concerns raised are taken seriously. James W. Spensley, a Colorado-based environmental lawyer with broad experience in government pointed out that the courts provided an import check on abuse, since shoddy or biased studies are vulnerable to legal challenges.

“Generally,” he said, “lead agencies are very cautious about finding someone who is going to give them good, reliable, information because they are the ones that are going to get sued.”

Why is Social Security, a proven and popular retirement program that is separate from the federal budget, being threat- ened?

Why do corporations get tax loopholes and offshore tax havens?

Why should workers’ right to organize and bar- gain be threatened?

Why are corporations “artificial people” with power and influence real people don’t have?

Why have political campaigns become multi million dollar enterprises?

In the post World War Two era of a thriving middle class, when Dad might have worked on an assembly line and Mom was a homemaker, and the kids' school offered art and music classes, the wealthiest one percent of Americans never took in more than 12.8 percent of the nation's pre tax income.
From the Ronald Reagan Presidency on, things began to shift. Wealth redistributed upward so that today the top one percent receive 25 percent of income.

According to Paul Buchheit, a professor with City Colleges of Chicago, "if middle- and upper-middle-income families had maintained the same share of Americal productivity that they held in 1980, they would be making an average $12,500 more per year." The size of our economy "has quintupled since 1980, and we all contributed to that success.

But our contributions have earned us nothing. While total income has also quintupled, percentage-wise almost all the gains went to the richest 1 percent."
Bring a sign and your Aloha Spirit.

Support the OCTOBER2011.ORG movement and our Kauai neighbors who are part of the occupation of Freedom Plaza, Washington D.C.

Image above: Sec. of State Hillary Clinton speaks at last APEC conference. From original article.

Speaking earlier this year on US National Public Radio, Intel CEO Paul Otellini suggested that the global power shift that occurred from the United Kingdom to the United States at the beginning of the 20th century is now replaying itself, as power moves away from the United States to the Asia-Pacific region, specifically China.

If that's true, then Hawaii is well poised to serve as the place where the proverbial baton is handed off. This November (8-13), Honolulu will host the APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) 2011 summit where 21 member economies will discuss region issues.
Founded in 1989 as a forum for "facilitating economic growth, cooperation, trade and investment in the Asia-Pacific region", APEC comprises some of the world's largest economies including the US, China, Japan, Russia, South Korea, Canada,

Singapore, Hong Kong, Chinese Taipei (Taiwan) and Australia - as well as developing economies from Vietnam and the Philippines to Mexico and Peru.
APEC's primary focus is on what it calls the "Three Pillars of APEC": Trade and investment liberalization, business facilitation and economic and technical cooperation.
As a single economic body representing 40 per cent of the world's population, 54 per cent of global GDP (about $34 trillion in 2008) and approximately 44 per cent of world trade, APEC is enormous, so it's no wonder Hawaii's state government and local business leaders thrill at hosting such a big fish.

Yet APEC will take place alongside an equally important, though far less well-known international conference called Moana Nui.
Moana Nui (the name means "Great Ocean" in Hawaiian) will convene in Honolulu (Nov 9-11) to discuss issues vital to the well-being of Asian-Pacific peoples with an emphasis on protecting indigenous rights, local economies and fragile ecosystems that are often disproportionately impacted by resource exploitation, militarization and free trade policies such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement, currently under negotiation among nine APEC members.

Moana Nui is being organized by academics, activists and advocates around a wide range of social, economic and environmental issues. More than three dozen participants from the region will host panel discussions that challenge the APEC model and offer alternate approaches to problems facing this vital region.
And while both APEC and Moana Nui claim to seek the prosperity and well-being of the Asia-Pacific region, their scale, financial resources and philosophies are very different.
Moana Nui coordinator Arnie Saiki says the two are incompatible;

"If we advocate environmental justice and indigenous stewardship over land resources, this is absolutely anathema to the free market which APEC is founded upon."

Saiki points out that despite the "Pacific" in APEC's name, the smaller politically independent body of Pacific Island nations are absent from APEC - except through representation as the Pacific Island Forum which observes APEC talks, but has no vote.
Moana Nui, he says, will challenge globalisation, militarisation, resource exploitation, environmental degradation and what he calls "the strategic and economic hegemony of our region".

Is the APEC model flawed?
Richard Heinberg, a senior fellow at the Post Carbon Institute and author of ten books on peak oil and related issues, will attend Moana Nui. Heinberg says the globalisation of trade is highly vulnerable for two reasons: The depletion of fossil fuels and associated rising costs and the global credit crisis.
"Partly as a result of the gradual failure of our system of cheap energy and transport, we are seeing the unravelling of the global credit system," says Heinberg.

"We need to develop more local resilience, more self-sufficiency and more ability to provision ourselves within our local ecosystems."

APEC, Heinberg suggests, supports a system of international trade that is dependent upon cheap fossil fuels, satellite communications, container ships and a few key technologies that are highly vulnerable.
Heinberg continues: "We need international cooperation but in different areas from what APEC is focusing on. We need international cooperation to protect ecosystems and indigenous cultures and share renewable energy technologies. What we're doing with organisations like APEC is mostly the opposite."

Also participating in the Moana Nui conference is the International Forum on Globalisation. Executive director Victor Menotti says APEC and Moana Nui represent "entirely different world views". APEC, he says, is the "industrial corporate, global free trade view based on increased consumption and materialism", while Moana Nui represents a "community, local-level perspective that values subsistence and indigenous economies". He calls it a "clash of paradigms".

Menotti says APEC could potentially do good by exchanging ideas on best practices, planning for climate change adaptation and inter-governmental cooperation, but says APEC is primarily a corporate agenda that prioritises trade liberalisation, getting government out of the way for "corporate rape and pillage".
"It's a question of priorities. APEC is primarily a business forum and its economic collaboration with a particular role for government and trade and investment liberalisation."

Environmental concerns
Moana Nui will also address environmental concerns with the participation of groups such as Pacific Environment, a San Francisco-based NGO that focuses on California, Alaska, Russia and China, collaborating with grassroots environmental groups, offering support, guidance and advocacy.

Galina Angarova, Pacific Environment's Russia program director, will speak on a panel that examines the impact of industrial resource extraction (oil, gas, timber, mineral and animal). She says Moana Nui is a forum to consider comprehensive solutions for the region.
"I think the reason we are having a parallel meeting is to draw APEC's attention to the problems we have in the region. I am really hopeful that APEC itself will emphasise environmentally friendly ways to grow economically without impacting climate change, natural resources and carbon footprints. Hopefully it is going to be positive. I believe people are there to listen to each other - but I might be wrong."

Professor Peter Petri, a senior fellow at the East-West Center in Honolulu and economics professor at Brandeis University specialises in Asia-Pacific economics, has consulted for APEC and was the chair of the APEC Studies Centre. He expects "some engagement" of outside groups, but says: "My guess is that [APEC] will make some effort to listen and it will be very difficult to integrate things that are very far away from the concrete agenda APEC is trying to pursue."

"APEC will be dealing at levels of detail and issues that are very different from the ones that people might be interested in pursuing."
"[APEC] really is an effort to build a community among people from different countries in lots of different areas. It may be not a bad place for NGO concerns to be raised although how much immediate response they will get, that's hard to tell."

He describes APEC as having the capacity to build "international communities" at many levels beyond economics and trade policies. "I don't think that's necessarily mutually exclusive with also trying to build stronger communities with national and local levels," he adds.
But looking at these two very different international gatherings, it's easy to see APEC as globalisation's Goliath towering over the global south's David-like figure of Moana Nui.

As the world's media focuses on the telegenic image of Barack Obama standing alongside Hu Jintao, Dmitry Medvedev and other heads of state in colorful aloha shirts with a tropical backdrop, it's possible that Moana Nui will simply be ignored by APEC and the press.
"I think there is a real danger of Moana Nui being overshadowed," says Moana Nui participant Kyle Kajihiro, acting coordinator for Hawaii Peace and Justice.

Kajihiro, along with activists representing Guam, Okinawa and Jeju island, South Korea, will be conducting a workshop on the impacts of militarization.
Kajihiro says Hawaii is an apt location to discuss these issues because "Hawaii was one of the early casualties of global capitalism ... and it experienced a loss of sovereignty in exchange for trade with America".

"David and Goliath is a suitable metaphor for Hawaii or any Pacific nation where APEC powers are converging. They pick small places because they think we are easy to control and they use us to dominate others. The small islands are really strategic in building power and control around the planet."

Militarism meets tourism
Kajihiro and others say Hawaii is attractive to APEC because its remote location reduces the potential for outside protesters and, with its huge military presence, is easy to secure.
"It's a weird confluence of militarisation and tourism," Kajihiro says. "On one hand APEC is promoting the myth of Hawaii as a welcoming, compliant venue to hold meetings, but it is all buttressed by an infrastructure of state violence that exists here."

Local Hawaii media and groups such as Kajihiro's have reported on and questioned the millions of dollars being spent on APEC security that could install or convert as many as 260 surveillance cameras and an arsenal of tens of thousands of dollars worth of crowd control equipment - from pepper spray and Taser guns to long-range loud speakers and other "non-lethal" devices.
Hawaii's Lieutenant Governor Brian Schatz is the lead state official for APEC. He says: "We are a free speech nation which means we're not going to diminish anybody's ability to express an opinion that may be contrary to the mainstream about APEC. I think that attitude will serve the event well and keep whatever dissenting voices there may be from feeling alienated to the point of violence."

"We feel confident that we have the appropriate security measures in place and that the conference will be safe and successful."
Kajihiro, however, suggests the funds could be better spent: "We could use some of that (security) money to bring more people affected by the APEC agenda to have a more inclusive dialogue."

• Jon Letman is an independent journalist in Hawaii where he covers wildlife conservation, politics and people of the Asia-Pacific region. Follow him on Twitter..

A new chart out today illustrates the revolving door between politics in DC and the oil industry: specifically TransCanada, the company behind the Keystone XLtar sands pipeline.
The chart, an investigation "white board," was put out by Oil Change International, DeSmogBlog, The Other 98% and Friends of the Earth. Click through to see the full graphic, which shows an array of State Department officials, oil interests, lobbyists and campaign donors leading all the way to Secretary Clinton and President Obama—but really, it speaks for itself.

The tangled web of corruption surrounding the Keystone XL pipeline implicates lobbyists and government officials alike. DeSmogBlog, Oil Change International, The Other 98% and Friends of the Earth investigated the cozy relationships between key State Department officials and corporate lobbyists, and they lead all the way to the president’s doorstep.

President Obama made a campaign promise to shut out oil lobbyists, yet the State Department’s blatant bias toward approving the Keystone XL pipeline is a clear example of oil influence over our democracy.

Check out the investigation board below and then take action to urge President Obama to end oil lobby influence and stop the Keystone XL pipeline.Image above: Reduced size of whole Keystone XK Pipeline corruption chart. for full size see original article.

Today, a coalition of environmental groups sued the U.S. State Department and Fish & Wildlife Service to stop that work: the clearing of grasslands, the moving of threatened species, and other work they say TransCanada is doing illegally in advance of the proposed $7 billion pipeline.

Reuters reports that the Center for Biological Diversity, the Western Nebraska Resources Council and Friends of the Earth filed the suit [PDF] in the U.S. District Court in Nebraska.

"It's outrageous that TransCanada is already clearing the way for the Keystone XL pipeline before the public has had a chance to have its say and, indeed, before federal agencies have even said it can be built," said Noah Greenwald, endangered species program director at the Center for Biological Diversity.

The groups say the State Department and the Fish and Wildlife Service have quietly allowed TransCanada to do the work, including mowing a corridor of native prairie grasslands in Nebraska's ecologically sensitive Sand Hills region.

SUBHEAD: This kind of waste erodes trust in our government and makes our already difficult fiscal situation that much worse.
By Juan Wilson on 6 October 2011 for Island Breath -(http://islandbreath.blogspot.com/2011/10/dont-trust-army-corps-of-engineers.html)Image above: Surf crashes on revetment wall along Kuamualii Highway near west of Catholic church in Kekaha. From (http://www.poh.usace.army.mil/CW/CWPhotos-HIKa.htm).
If you remember back to the analysis of damage caused by hurricane Katrina when it hit New Orleans you probably recall that major factors for the failure of the levees and the subsequent flooding that killed almost 2000 people and did over $80 billion in property damage was laid at the feet of the Army Corp of Engineers.
First - they cut the wetlands to the south of the city into ribbons by slicing channels for large vessels that wanted shortcuts to the gulf waters. These water highways eroded the grassland and marshes that buffered the mainland from storm surges. These wetlands have been a living filter protecting both the gulf and the city. They were critically damaged by the projects of the Army Corps.
Second - the Corps badly designed and under maintained the levees that were needed to protect parts of the city most likely to be flooded when a storm surge from the gulf, or high water from the Mississippi came. Those lowest lying areas where the dykes were, of course, were where the poorest people (read black) lived.
Here on Kauai they have been busy and have plans. I am most familiar with their efforts to "improve" the Hanapepe River Levee system. I live inside the protection of that levee on the west side of the river. My conclusion after watching the efforts since 2006 to improve the system is that the Army Corps of Engineers is a mechanistic and unimaginative design and build contracting outfit with the power of god and little care about the environment of the people that live in the path of their work.
They don't get the living system here, and don't care about it. They have insisted that all living grass, plants and trees be stripped from the levee (since 2006). The Kauai County Public Works were the Corps army in the field enlisted to do the work. They employed chainsaws and backhoes and pesticides. They would spray Round-Up at 7am within 25ft of residents asleep in their beds. At least two women were badly affected by the poison gases. One suffered an asthmatic attack and could not breathe afterwards. She was in her 70's. The other was pregnant in her 20's and became ill. She miscarried within 48 hours.
At a recent meeting in Hanapepe the Army Corps informed the community of the timeline for their project. I won't go into the details but they are horrible. I asked the Corps representative from Honolulu what research they had done on the best species of grasses and plants that could be placed on the sides of the levee once rebuilt. He didn't have a clue nor did he know of anyone who did.
I'd rather live with no flood insurance and no levee and take a chance with the ebb and flow of nature like people did here before 1965.
Has anyone noticed that since the Army Corps has been involved with "saving" Kekaha's small boat harbor and beaches that the erosion there seems to have accelerated?
Staggering Army Corps FraudBy John Rudolf on 5 October 2011 for Huffington Post -
(http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/05/army-corps-engineers-fraud-eyaktek_n_996442.html)Image above: The Army Corps idea of a shoreline along the Industrial Canal in New Orleans, after hurricane Katrina. From (http://www.tulane.edu/~sanelson/Katrina/katrina_images.htm).

Two senior employees at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers bilked the government out of $20 million through a "brazen" bribery and kickback scheme, federal prosecutors charged Tuesday afternoon.

Prosecutors identified the mastermind of the scheme as Kerry F. Khan, 53, of Alexandria, Va., a program manager at the Army Corps' Washington, D.C., headquarters. According to the 42-page indictment, Khan controlled a dizzying array of shell companies, which were used to mask millions of dollars being skimmed off inflated federal contracts paid to a Dulles, Va., technology firm.

Khan, who is charged with bribery, money laundering and wire fraud, pocketed roughly $18 million from the scheme over four years, prosecutors said. He allegedly spent the money on Rolex watches, BMW sports cars, designer clothes, first-class travel and properties around the globe.

The fraud was "staggering in scope," said Ronald Machen Jr., the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, at a news conference announcing the arrests.

"This indictment alleges one of the most brazen corruption schemes in the history of federal contracting," Machen said.

Harold F. Babb, the contracts director at Virginia tech firm EyakTek, was also charged with multiple felonies, along with Michael A. Alexander, a program director at the Army Corps, and Lee A. Khan, Kerry Khan's son, who controlled a consulting company allegedly involved in the scheme. The four men were arraigned in federal district court in Washington, D.C., where their lawyers entered pleas of not guilty to all charges.

As outlined in the indictment, the fraud scheme was simple enough, if breathtaking in scope. It began with a $1 billion Army Corps contract awarded to EyakTek, which subcontracted work out to another, unnamed Virginia tech firm. In a conspiracy with employees at the two companies, Kerry Khan and Alexander, who oversaw the contract, added millions of dollars in phony expenses to invoices sent to the government. Those funds were then allegedly skimmed from checks paid out by the agency and funneled back to the conspirators through a series of shell companies.

When arrested, the conspirators were planning a similar scheme, prosecutors said. According to recorded conversations and intercepted emails, the men were attempting to steer a $780 million technology contract to the unnamed Virginia technology firm, which could also be skimmed for profit. The only major hurdle would be clearing a government selection committee.

"Our biggest thing is being able to stack the board," Babb said during a March 2011 meeting with an unindicted co-conspirator, according to the indictment. "That's what I'm trying to do. I'm trying to stack it in our favor."

On Wednesday, several leading Democrats in Congress called on the Pentagon to improve the oversight of its more than $600 billion annual budget.

In a letter sent to Ashton Carter, Deputy Secretary of Defense, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) called the latest scam part of an ongoing pattern of fraud and waste that has drained billions of dollars from federal coffers. In particular, she pointed to a September report from the Commission on Wartime Contracting that found up to $60 billion lost to contract waste and abuse in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"We cannot allow this kind of fraud to run unchecked," Shaheen said. "This kind of waste erodes trust in our government and makes our already difficult fiscal situation that much worse."

As we gather together in solidarity to express a feeling of mass injustice, we must not lose sight of what brought us together. We write so that all people who feel wronged by the corporate forces of the world can know that we are your allies.

As one people, united, we acknowledge the reality: that the future of the human race requires the cooperation of its members; that our system must protect our rights, and upon corruption of that system, it is up to the individuals to protect their own rights, and those of their neighbors; that a democratic government derives its just power from the people, but corporations do not seek consent to extract wealth from the people and the Earth; and that no true democracy is attainable when the process is determined by economic power. We come to you at a time when corporations, which place profit over people, self-interest over justice, and oppression over equality, run our governments. We have peaceably assembled here, as is our right, to let these facts be known.

They have taken our houses through an illegal foreclosure process, despite not having the original mortgage.

They have taken bailouts from taxpayers with impunity, and continue to give Executives exorbitant bonuses.

They have perpetuated inequality and discrimination in the workplace based on age, the color of one's skin, sex, gender identity and sexual orientation.

They have poisoned the food supply through negligence, and undermined the farming system through monopolization.

They have profited off of the torture, confinement, and cruel treatment of countless animals, and actively hide these practices.

They have continuously sought to strip employees of the right to negotiate for better pay and safer working conditions.

They have held students hostage with tens of thousands of dollars of debt on education, which is itself a human right.

They have consistently outsourced labor and used that outsourcing as leverage to cut workers’ healthcare and pay.

They have influenced the courts to achieve the same rights as people, with none of the culpability or responsibility.

They have spent millions of dollars on legal teams that look for ways to get them out of contracts in regards to health insurance.

They have sold our privacy as a commodity.

They have used the military and police force to prevent freedom of the press.

They have deliberately declined to recall faulty products endangering lives in pursuit of profit.

They determine economic policy, despite the catastrophic failures their policies have produced and continue to produce.

They have donated large sums of money to politicians, who are responsible for regulating them.

They continue to block alternate forms of energy to keep us dependent on oil.

They continue to block generic forms of medicine that could save people’s lives or provide relief in order to protect investments that have already turned a substantial profit.

They have purposely covered up oil spills, accidents, faulty bookkeeping, and inactive ingredients in pursuit of profit.

They purposefully keep people misinformed and fearful through their control of the media.

They have accepted private contracts to murder prisoners even when presented with serious doubts about their guilt.

They have perpetuated colonialism at home and abroad.

They have participated in the torture and murder of innocent civiliansThey continue to create weapons of mass destruction in order to receive government contracts.*

To the people of the world,

We, the New York City General Assembly occupying Wall Street in Liberty Square, urge you to assert your power.

Exercise your right to peaceably assemble; occupy public space; create a process to address the problems we face, and generate solutions accessible to everyone.

To all communities that take action and form groups in the spirit of direct democracy, we offer support, documentation, and all of the resources at our disposal.

After a string of well-attended regional meetings (north, south east and west) around Kaua`i with over 40 people cumulatively attending, things are beginning to shape up!
Join Us to: Build a better CO-OP, Keep your energy dollars on Kaua`i & Reduce your electrical rates Create a sustainable energy grid for future generations !!!!
The first P2P (Power to the People) Kaua`i ISLANDWIDE Potluck & Meeting will be held @ Lydgate Park under the pavilion,
Monday, Oct 10th.

We eat @ 4:30. then meet 5-7pm.

Please bring some yummy food to share with your neighbors, and good ideas on how Community can more effectively engage with KIUC, to build a better coop, and reduce our electrical rates, achieve a sustainable energy future for Kaua`i.
Just Some of the issues your fellow islanders have identified:
KIUC has the highest electrical rates in the nation.

We want some affordable electricity for all, with steeply indexed prices based on consumption, and see no need for "smart meters" to do this.
Ever wonder why KIUC doesnʻt seem to act in your interest? Kaua`i does not own ʻourʻ co-op -- the banks own 78%, co-op members only a 22% equity.

Through debt service payments and dependence on diesel, KIUC funnels $100 million dollars off-island year after year. We must protect our local economy, and keep those dollars on Kaua`i!
KIUC acts more like a company than a CO-OP than many members would wish.

Bylaws should be re-written to reflect genuine self-governance, and a department of professional "Social Engineers" should be hired on staff for KIUC just as competent as the existing Electrical Engineers so we can begin to build a better cooperative.

Finally, it is becoming clear to more and more of us: No matter how many "good ideas" you have, you also need at least 4,000 votes to get into office.

In the last 2 elections only 2,000 sustainable votes were cast. P2P must more than double this to create a mandate for the changes Kaua`i desperately needs to create a sustainable energy future.

WHAT:
A Potluck, General Meeting on strategies and tactics for community to better engage with KIUC

I am currently on Maui working with a team in writing and implementing The Clean Sky Ordinance which is a county ordinance that will ban chemtrail/geoengineering programs above and around the county of Maui.

While we know that these programs have been in full-scale deployment for several years, The Clean Sky Ordinance is a preemptive act based on geoengineering plans and proposals to spray 10 to 20 million tons of toxic aluminum oxide and other particulates in the the atmosphere for the stated goal of cooling the planet.

We not only have public support, but also support from public officials including a council member who is sponsoring the ordinance. Please reply to this e-mail if interested in scheduling an interview.
Thanks again for your support in exposing these crimes against nature and humanity.

The Maui Clean Sky Ordinance
The People of the County of Maui hereby propose the following ordinance to preserve clean skies over the islands of Maui, Molokai, Lanai, Molokini and Kahoolawe.
Whereas, the people of the county of Maui recognize that geoengineers propose the global disbursement of aerosols and other particulates into the atmosphere for the stated goal of cooling the planet; and,

Whereas, studies have shown that disbursements from stratospheric aerosol geoengineering and other such programs contain toxic substances with many unknown health and environmental consequences; and,

Whereas, the people of Maui County have the right to be informed by full disclosure through an Environmental Impact Statement of the health and environmental implications caused by such programs; and,

Whereas, any such program or experimental program with potentially adverse health and environmental implications need the informed consent of the people of Maui County; and

Whereas, Maui County has jurisdiction over any deliberate disbursement of substances that enters our breathing atmosphere or lands on our soil, other than normal approved byproducts of industry, commerce and transportation; and

Therefore, as a preemptive measure to safeguard the health and environment of the County of Maui, the following ordinance is proposed.
No entity may engage in disbursement of aerosols, chemicals or any particulate matter into the skies that may enter into the breathing atmosphere, enter into the rain or land on the soilsof Maui County, or engage in geoengineering, climate engineering or any other activity that may alter the weather or alter the sunlight of Maui County, without first presenting an Environmental Impact Statement that has been approved by the Maui County Council, and receiving the written informed consent from the Maui County Council.

Exempt from this law are approved byproduct of normal industry, commerce and transportation.
Any entity found to be in violation of this ordinance shall receive a mandatory $500,000 per day fine for each day that a disbursement violation is detected, and shall be subject to civil claims for health and environmental damages and clean up cost.

SUBHEAD: A knight in shining armor - Hawaii's version of Elizabeth Warren & Lone Ranger combined - a champion of the people.
By Ed Wagoner on 5 October 2011 in Island Breath -
(ed.j.wagner@gmail.com)Image above: Rumors have been flying about Mina's removal from PUC. From (http://thegardenisland.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/article_c4fa4d1a-3355-11e0-a668-001cc4c03286.html).
The people of Hawaii are in good hands with PUC Chairman Mina Morita. Last Thursday, she had the courage to stand up to our false energy God and to those who bow before it in idolatrous worship, including Governor Abercrombie who should be recalled from office just like Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, most, if not all of the State Legislature, and the negligent Department of Consumer Advocacy whose staff should be forced to resign.
It is already rumored that HECO & Aina Koa Pono ( AKP ) are planning to proceed with the biofuel project regardless of the PUC rejection and regardless of community opposition, possibly with a new RFP that will go directly to AKP. As a result, a petition complaint to the FTC is still in the works with a request to file a class action lawsuit on our behalf against HECO, Aina Koa Pono, and the Consumer Advocacy, and maybe even the Governor and State Legislature. More details will follow about reading and signing the petition.
There is no doubt that Governor Abercrombie is highly pissed about the PUC rejection of his pet biofuel project in Ka'u and that he may try to remove Chairman Morita and the two Commissioners who signed the rejection order and replace them with robots that can follow his orders. I'm certain that he and Ms. Morita have been looking stink eye at each other, with smoke coming out of their ears as they fight with each other about doing what is PONO for the people and not for money and power mongers like HECO and Aina Koa Pono.
I encourage all of you to send a message to your State Representatives and Senators or to ALL members of the Legislature telling them that you fully support Mina Morita as Chairman of the PUC and that you will not tolerate any attempt by the Governor to replace her or her fellow Commissioners.
I also suggest you call for the resignation of the entire staff of the Consumer Advocacy, including its Executive Director, Jeffrey Ono for fully supporting the HECO - Aina Koa Pono contract to the very end and ignoring all the red flags raised by Charlene On Green & myself the past 6 to 8 months.
Here is a link to a list of Representatives with email addresses and phone numbers:
http://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/session2010/members/house/members.asp
Here is a link to a list of Senators with email addresses and phone numbers:
http://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/session2011/members/senate/senatemembers.aspx
Or send to ALL Senators and ALL Representatives like I do:
sens@capitol.hawaii.gov,
reps@capitol.gov,
I would suggest that you also send the message to the Governor and Lt. Governor.
governor.abercrombie@hawaii.gov,
gov.contact@hawaii.gov,
brian.schatz@hawaii.gov
The office of the Governor phone number is:
Phone: 808-586-0034
The office of the Lt. Governor phone number is:
Phone:(808) 586-0255
And finally, you can send the message to Chairman Morita, thanking her for supporting the people instead of HECO. She deserves our respect, admiration, and support.
Hawaii.PUC@hawaii.gov,
The phone number for the PUC is:
Phone:(808) 586-2020
I would also ask that you include me on the message Bcc ( blind carbon copy ) line so I can keep track of how many messages / phone calls are sent and to whom so Charlene On Green can include statistics on her website, www.chaleneongreen.org.
.